NZ Artists' Hui in Chicago
The Hyde Park Art Center in Chicago is proud to announce that four New Zealand artists have been selected to participate in the ambitious project Close Encounters that kicks off this May. New Zealand artists Daniel du Bern, Maddie Leach, Lisa Reihana and Wayne Youle together with Chicago-based artists Tania Bruguera, Walter Hood, Truman Lowe and Iñigo Manglano-Ovalle will be asked to explore the social dynamics and architecture of cultural gatherings. Close Encounters will be initiated on the 15th of May with a three day hui at Ruatepupuke II, a sacred wharenui on permanent display at the Field Museum of Chicago. The hui will also involve interaction with alternative sub-cultures in the city of Chicago and will be accessible to global discussion via the internet. This initial phase of the project is being supported by Creative New Zealand. The project culminates with an exhibition at the Hyde Park Art Center in 2009 that will feature exclusively new work by the eight artists.
Ruatepupuke II is an amazingly carved 19th century Maori Meeting House that was created by the ancestors of Te Whanau A Ruataupare (from Tokomaru Bay on the East Cape) in the honour of Ruatepupuke who according to legend brought the art of woodcarving into the human world. It is believed that Ruatepupuke II was sold to a Maori curio dealer and later owned by an ethnographic dealer in Germany. Ruatepupuke II was then sold to Chicago's Field Museum in 1905. After discussions and collaboration between Te Whanau A Ruataupare and the Field Museum in the 1980s and early 1990s, Ruatepupuke II underwent major refurbishment and is now a functioning urban marae within Chicago. The Close Encounters hui will be the first of its kind to be held at the marae.
http://www.hydeparkart.org/
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